Hello r/languagelearning A few years ago I Lived in Japan for about 8 months, when I was there I started picking up the language, to the level where I could hold basic conversations and read signs in the metro and on the street, etc. This level of progression was great for me, I was surrounded by it, I didn't know a single person there that was a native english speaker, and my only contact was on my phone with family or the english news in the morning. My "Japanese Family" (family friends, but basically family after decades of our clans travelling to each other) would teach me phrases and deeper meanings to words. I felt a real sense of progression, like everyday was a struggle and success to understand more about my surroundings.
After I moved back, I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to study more, but with school, and eventually work, learning such a difficult and alien language without constant exposure felt like an extreme chore, so I eventually lost most of it.
Fast forward to 2019 I decided I wanted to study a language again, I felt a real sense of accomplishment in Japan, along with the joy of communicating with someone in their native tongue I fell in love, it was addictive. I decided that I was going to learn Norwegian, as it is a very similar language to english, significantly easier than Japanese, and after studying it, quite beautiful.
Now here's where my issue is, I find it extremely hard to actually see results. I'm an avid artist. I love to draw. When I study, draw, repeat, I can see lines misplaced, I can see how structures aren't oriented correctly. When I lived in Japan, I could talk to someone, have them correct me, or hear a phrase and say: "Ok, this is how they pronounce it, I'm saying it wrong.".
I find it very hard to get to the level where I can comfortably reach out to a native speaker and feel like I'm not wasting their time, and I don't feel like I'm improving, it feels like I'm simply regurgitating sentences and phrases from various programs and I get discouraged because of it. When I listen to podcasts and media I just don't understand it, I can pick out the occasional word, and listen to pronunciation, but even after several months I feel like a snail. If I study too hard, I get burnt out, If I don't study hard enough or take too many breaks, I stop for weeks.
So my question to you is, how do you get over that hump, that hill where you go from clueless to: "Ok, I'm getting the hang of it enough to tell"?
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from Ongi etorri | Languagelearning https://ift.tt/3cml51z
via Learn Online English Speaking
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